


Bedtime Tales

by chiliadal



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Another day another fic, Gen, Other, also don't ask me when this takes place, ambiguous WoL, can be read as platonic or romantic, i love ardbert pls let me do him justice, i make everything ambiguous because i have exactly one braincell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 03:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19967389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiliadal/pseuds/chiliadal
Summary: Unable to rest and sleep for the time being, Ardbert takes it upon himself to entertain the Warrior of Light with a few tales of his own adventures.





	Bedtime Tales

**Author's Note:**

> I’m soft and tender for Ardbert if it wasn’t obvious. Anyway, another ambiguous fic for you all, please enjoy.

You end up tossing and turning, finding no real comfort in the bed. Which is strange, given that you had fallen asleep without too much trouble prior times, but then again, you heart wasn’t weighing as heavily as it is now. You are frustrated and upset, but you don’t falter. You can’t falter, not with so many people believing in you. Even now, even at your lowest, you have to push yourself back up, wipe the blood off, and keep pressing forward. 

It’s just so damn hard to keep getting back up. 

Maybe all these pent up feelings are picked up by him. Maybe he just knows. Whatever the reason, he’s standing there by your bedside, staring down at you. You throw him an annoyed look, telling him you’re trying to get your beauty rest, thank you very much. 

“Oh poor you, acting like you’re sleeping. How’s those dreams coming along?”

You ignore him and turn over to your other side, promptly avoiding him in the shared room. Even though it’s technically _your_ private quarters, you might as well as be sharing it with him considering he’s here more often than not. Regardless of your thoughts on it, you hear him sigh and mutter something about being childish. Which, you know, is true, you are being childish but you aren’t about to admit to that right now. 

“Okay, well if you’re going to be like that, guess I’ll keep your bedtime story to myself.”

You sit up and look directly at him, saying you aren’t a child who needs to be read to. 

“I never said that. Now you’re just putting words in my mouth. Look, when any of us, me and the rest of my party, couldn’t sleep, we’d share tales. Like bedtime stories, but something to ease whatever tension was going on.”

Okay, now he’s made your curious. You tilt your head, gesturing for him to continue. 

“Well, we had a few good tales we'd share with each other. I don’t know if you want any boring details of some of them but let’s see…”

He started off relatively simple, mentioning a few of his companions, how he met them, what silly tasks they had to do. The feast one caught you by surprise, knowing exactly what kind of shenanigans he got up to if it was anything like yours. Again, there is a kinship to you both and you can appreciate that. After all, he didn’t actually have to go out of his way to help ease the tension you feel in your body, in your entire soul. 

You smile and ask him what he liked about his companions. 

“They’re a bunch of hard-headed individuals in their own right, but you know, they’re good. They...were good. The best people you could have at your side.” You stare at him and you can see that stare, the long and distant one. It makes you sad for him. Only vaguely do you understand, empathizing with him. 

It must be lonely. 

You ask for another tale and without missing too much of a beat, he picked right back up from there again. He’s thankful for the distraction, he’s thankful for you seeing that just as you’re thankful to him for keeping you company. 

A couple of hours pass and you’re on the cusp of sleep before the words tumble out of your mouth. 

_**Are you scared?** _

He doesn’t say anything. You don’t know if Ardbert ever felt fear. In the memories you’ve seen, he’s always seemed straightforward, rushing ahead to help others, no hesitation. A part of you feels like he’d have no problem jumping between you and danger if it came to it. If he could. Even if he couldn’t, he’d try to anyway. 

“I dunno about scared.” You open your eyes and stare at him, curled up in your bed. It’s another long stare, like the two of you are reading each other’s minds. You can understand a lot by not saying anything at all. “It’s not easy seeing all of this and knowing I can’t even help out in the slightest. But you? You, Warrior of Darkness, you have a real shot of helping people out there. So if I can help you out and keep pushing you forward, then no. I’m not scared, I’m willing to keep going if you are.”

You pull back, laying on your back and just stare at the ceiling. His words comfort and haunt you. They’re a reminder that people are relying on you, that they need you, even in your darkest moments, they _need_ you. And just like that, you keep standing back up and moving forward. Even with all the loss, even with all the sacrifices, even if you’re going to die, you will get back up. 

That’s what heroes do. That’s what **you** do, o’ Warrior of Darkness. 

You rest your arm over your eyes and just let a stillness overcome you. You won’t give up. You can’t. Not because others, but for yourself, you know what you want. Helping people, saving them, seeing the smile on people’s face, the crying from those who have lost family and friends, it’s everything. Maybe in some instances, you never had a choice. Maybe you never got a chance to say goodbye, maybe, maybe, maybe--

“I know. You don’t want to lose anyone anymore.”

You lift your arm to look at him. You’re miserable, you truly are, but even so, you won’t allow yourself to give up. If not you, who? If not for them, why?

You sit up once more, searching in Ardbert’s eyes, the eyes that are sympathetic but harden. He knows what it’s like to be a hero. He knows what it’s like to fail. He knows loss. He knows and even now, even when he’s been wandering for a hundred years, he’s here. Clinging to you as his only source of conversation, at first anyway, but knowing that you can save what he could not, it gave him all the more reason to keep pushing forward. For his sake and your own. 

As for you? You do it because…

“Come on, chin up. I’m not going to let you keep feeling sorry for yourself. You’re not alone and you’re not going to lose. No matter what, you’ll keep going, even if I have to push you along.”

You smile because a smile suits you better. 

Laying back down, her look at him and say one more tale, not of his journeys, not of his battles, but of his childhood, his life before a hero. He looks taken back and kind of embarrassed. 

“Look, it wasn’t glorious or anything. And I’m only going to share one because you need to sleep. I don’t need you passing out on me, alright.”

You grin and he’s frowning at you. 

It was a nice story and when you wake up the next day, even with the dream you had, you’re feeling a bit more normal. 

And that’s good enough for you.

**Author's Note:**

> You know, this turned out different than I expected so I'm sorry if it's not what you expected. Regardless, I'm considering a role reversal au drabble/fic but I dunno how much I have in me to do that;; anyway! I hope you enjoyed the fic.


End file.
